c The number of people of Serb descent in North America and Australia is higher, as people who identify as having Yugoslav ancestry (310,682 in the U.S.,[11] 48,320 in Canada[12] and 26,883 people in Australia[16]) are mostly of Serb origin.[17]

The Serbs share many cultural traits with the rest of the peoples of Southeast Europe. They are predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christians by religion. The Serbian language is official in Serbia, co-official in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is spoken by the majority in Montenegro.

The modern identity of Serbs is rooted in Eastern Orthodoxy and traditions. In the 19th century, the Serbian national identity was manifested, with awareness of history and tradition, medieval heritage, cultural unity, despite living under different empires. Three elements, together with the legacy of the Nemanjić dynasty, were crucial in forging identity and preservation during foreign domination: the Serbian Orthodox Church, Kosovo Myth, and the Serbian language.[18] When the Principality of Serbia gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Orthodoxy became crucial in defining the national identity, instead of language which was shared by other South Slavs (Croats and Bosniaks).[19] The tradition of slava, the family saint feast day, is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity,[20] and is usually regarded their most significant and most solemn feast day.[21]

The origin of the ethnonym is unclear (see Names of the Serbs and Serbia). Genetic studies on Serbs show that they have close affinity with the rest of the Balkan peoples and especially those within former Yugoslavia; Y-DNA results show that haplogroups I2a and R1a together stand for roughly two thirds of the makeup (as of 2014).[22] Serbia has among the tallest people in the world, after Montenegro and Netherlands, with an average male height of 1.82 metres (6 ft 0 in).[23]

Slavs invaded and settled the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries.[24] Up until the late 560s their activity was raiding, crossing from the Danube, though with limited Slavic settlement mainly through Byzantine foederati colonies.[25] The Danube and Sava frontier was overwhelmed by large-scale Slavic settlement in the late 6th and early 7th century.[26] What is today central Serbia was an important geo-strategical province, through which the Via Militaris crossed.[27] This area was frequently intruded by barbarians in the 5th and 6th centuries.[27] The numerous Slavs mixed with and assimilated the descendants of the indigenous population.[28] The history of the early medieval Serbian Principality is recorded in the 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio, which describes the Serbs as a people living in Roman Dalmatia, subordinate the Byzantine Empire.[29]

Over the next 140 years, Serbia expanded its borders. Its cultural model remained Byzantine, despite political ambitions directed against the empire. The medieval power and influence of Serbia culminated in the reign of Stefan Dušan, who ruled the state from 1331 until his death in 1355. Ruling as Emperor from 1346, his territory included Macedonia, northern Greece, Montenegro, and almost all of modern Albania.[32] When Dušan died, his son Stephen Uroš V became Emperor.[33]

With Turkish invaders beginning their conquest of the Balkans in the 1350s, a major conflict ensued between them and the Serbs, the first major battle was the Battle of Maritsa (1371),[33] in which the Serbs were defeated.[34] With the death of two important Serb leaders in the battle, and with the death of Stephen Uroš that same year, the Serbian Empire broke up into several small Serbian domains.[33] These states were ruled by feudal lords, with Zeta controlled by the Balšić family, Raška, Kosovo and northern Macedonia held by the Branković family and Lazar Hrebeljanović holding today's Central Serbia and a portion of Kosovo.[35] Hrebeljanović was subsequently accepted as the titular leader of the Serbs because he was married to a member of the Nemanjić dynasty.[33] In 1389, the Serbs faced the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo on the plain of Kosovo Polje, near the town of Pristina.[34] Both Lazar and SultanMurad I were killed in the fighting.[36] The battle most likely ended in a stalemate, and Serbia did not fall to the Turks until 1459.[36]

The Serbs had taken an active part in the wars fought in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, and also organized uprisings; because of this, they suffered persecution and their territories were devastated – major migrations from Serbia into Habsburg territory ensued.[37] After allied Christian forces had captured Buda from the Ottoman Empire in 1686 during the Great Turkish War, Serbs from Pannonian Plain (present-day Hungary, Slavonia region in present-day Croatia, Bačka and Banat regions in present-day Serbia) joined the troops of the Habsburg Monarchy as separate units known as Serbian Militia.[38] Serbs, as volunteers, massively joined the Austrian side.[39]

A large migration of Serbs to Habsburg lands was undertaken by Patriarch Arsenije III.[40] The large community of Serbs concentrated in Banat, southern Hungary and the Military Frontier included merchants and craftsmen in the cities, but mainly refugees that were peasants.[40]

The Serbian Revolution for independence from the Ottoman Empire lasted eleven years, from 1804 until 1815.[41] The revolution comprised two separate uprisings which gained autonomy from the Ottoman Empire that eventually evolved towards full independence (1835–1867).[42][43] During the First Serbian Uprising, led by Duke Karađorđe Petrović, Serbia was independent for almost a decade before the Ottoman army was able to reoccupy the country. Shortly after this, the Second Serbian Uprising began. Led by Miloš Obrenović, it ended in 1815 with a compromise between Serbian revolutionaries and Ottoman authorities.[44] Likewise, Serbia was one of the first nations in the Balkans to abolish feudalism.[45]

The uprising ended in the early 1830s, with Serbia's autonomy and borders being recognized, and with Miloš Obrenović being recognized as its ruler. The last Ottoman troops withdrew from Serbia in 1867, although Serbia's independence was not recognized internationally until the Congress of Berlin in 1878.[37]

Serbs subsequently formed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with other South Slavic peoples. The country was later renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and was led from 1921 to 1934 by King Alexander I of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty.[49] During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers in April 1941. The country was subsequently divided into many pieces, with Serbia being directly occupied by the Germans.[50] Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) experienced persecution at the hands of the Croatian ultra-nationalist, fascist Ustaše, who attempted to exterminate the Serb population in death camps. More than half a million Serbs were killed in the territory of Yugoslavia during World War II. Serbs in occupied Yugoslavia subsequently formed a resistance movement known as the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, or the Chetniks. The Chetniks had the official support of the Allies until 1943, when Allied support shifted to the Communist Yugoslav Partisans, a multi-ethnic force, formed in 1941, which also had a large majority of Serbs in its ranks in the first two years of war. Later, after the fall of Italy (September 1943), other ethnic groups joined Partisans in larger numbers.[50]

There are over 2 million Serbs in diaspora throughout the world, although some sources put that figure as high as 4 million.[56] Existence of a numerous Serbian diaspora are mainly consequences of either economic or political (coercion or expulsions) reasons. There were several waves of Serbian emigration:

The first wave took place since the end of 19th century and lasted until World War II and was caused by economic reasons; particularly large numbers of Serbs (mainly from peripheral ethnic areas such as Herzegovina, Montenegro, Dalmatia, and Lika) emigrated to the United States.

The third wave, and by far the largest wave, was economic emigration started in the 1960s when several Western European countries signed bilateral agreements with Yugoslavia allowing the recruitment of industrial workers to those countries, and lasted until the end of the 1980s. Main destinations were West Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and to a lesser extent France and Sweden. That generation of diaspora is collectively known as gastarbajteri, after German gastarbeiter, "guest-worker", since most of the emigrants headed for German-speaking countries.

The most recent emigration took place during the 1990s, and was caused by both political and economic reasons. The Yugoslav wars caused many Serbs from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to leave their countries in the first half of the 1990s. The economic sanctions imposed on Serbia caused an economic collapse with an estimated 300,000 people leaving Serbia during that period, 20% of which had a higher education.[57][58]

Serbian is an official language in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and is a recognized minority language in Montenegro (although spoken by a plurality of population), Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. Older forms of literary Serbian are Church Slavonic of the Serbian recension, which is still used for ecclesiastical purposes, and Slavonic-Serbian—a mixture of Serbian, Church Slavonic and Russian used from mid-18th century to the first decades of the 19th century.

Loanwords in the Serbian language besides common internationalisms are mostly from Turkish, German and Italian, while words of Hungarian origin are present mostly in the north and Greek words are predominant in the liturgy.[citation needed] Two Serbian words that are used in many of the world's languages are "vampire" (vampir, spread through Arnold Paole) and "paprika".

Literature, icon painting, music and dance and Mediaeval architecture are the artistic forms for which Serbia is best known. Traditional Serbian visual art (specifically frescoes, and to some extent icons), as well as ecclesiastical architecture is highly reflective of Byzantine traditions, with some Mediterranean and Western influence.

In the modern times (since the 19th century) Serbs also have a noteworthy classical music and works of philosophy.[62]

Left:Miroslav Gospel, one of the oldest surviving documents written in Serbian recension of Church SlavonicRight:Nobel Prize-winning writer Ivo Andrić, born to a Bosnian Croat family, declared himself a Serb and is considered one of the greatest Serbian writers

During the 12th and 13th centuries, many icons, wall paintings and manuscript miniatures came into existence, as many Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches such as those at Studenica, Sopoćani, Gračanica and Visoki Dečani were built.[66] The architecture of some of these monasteries is world-famous.[31]

Many Serbs have contributed to the field of science and technology. Serbian American scientist, inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history. He is renowned for his contributions to the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Physicist and physical chemist Mihajlo Pupin is best known for his landmark theory of modern electrical filters as well as for his numerous patents, while Milutin Milanković is best known for his theory of long-term climate change caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun, now known as Milankovitch cycles.[74]Mihailo Petrović is known for having contributed significantly to differential equations and phenomenology, as well as inventing one of the first prototypes of an analog computer.

Most Serbian surnames are paternal, maternal, occupational or derived from personal traits. It is estimated that over two thirds of all Serbian surnames have the suffix -ić (-ић) ([itɕ]), a Slavic diminutive, originally functioning to create patronymics. Thus the surname Petrović means the "son of Petar" (from a male progenitor, the root is extended with possessive -ov or -ev). Due to limited use of international typewriters and unicode computer encoding, the suffix may be simplified to -ic, historically transcribed with a phonetic ending, -ich or -itch in foreign languages. Other common surname suffixes found among Serbian surnames are -ov, -ev, -in and -ski (without -ić) which is the Slavic possessive case suffix, thus Nikola's son becomes Nikolin, Petar's son Petrov, and Jovan's son Jovanov. Other, less common suffices are -alj/olj/elj, -ija, -ica, -ar/ac/an. The ten most common surnames in Serbia, in order, are Jovanović, Petrović, Nikolić, Marković, Đorđević, Stojanović, Ilić, Stanković, Pavlović and Milošević.[75]

Serbs are predominantly Orthodox Christians. The autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church, established in 1219, is led by a Patriarch, and consists of three archbishoprics, six metropolitanates and thirty-one eparchies, having around 10 million adherents. Followers of the church form the largest religious group in Serbia and Montenegro, and the second-largest in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. The church has an archbishopric in Macedonia and dioceses in Western Europe, North America and Australia.[76]

The identity of ethnic Serbs was historically largely based on Orthodox Christianity and on the Serbian Church in particular, to the extent of the claims that those who are not its faithful are not Serbs. The conversion of the South Slavs from paganism to Christianity took place before the Great Schism, the split between the Greek East and the Catholic West. After the Schism, those who lived under the Orthodox sphere of influence became Orthodox and those who lived under the Catholic sphere of influence became Catholic. Some ethnologists consider that the distinct Serb and Croat identities relate to religion rather than ethnicity. With the arrival of the Ottoman Empire, some Serbs converted to Islam. This was particularly, but not wholly, the case in Bosnia. Since the second half of the 19th century, some Serbs converted to Protestantism,[citation needed] while historically some Serbs were Catholics (especially in Dalmatia; e.g. Serb-Catholic movement in Dubrovnik).[77] The remainder of Serbs remain predominantly Serbian Orthodox Christians.

Among the most notable national and ethnic symbols are the flag of Serbia and the coat of arms of Serbia. The flag consists of a red-blue-white tricolour, rooted in Pan-Slavism, and has been used since the 19th century. Apart from being the national flag, it is also used officially in Republika Srpska (by Bosnian Serbs) and as the official ethnic flag of Croatian Serbs. The coat of arms, which includes both the Serbian eagle and Serbian cross, has also been officially used since the 19th century, its elements dating back to the Middle Ages, showing Byzantine and Christian heritage. These symbols are used by various Serb organisations, political parties and institutions. The Three-finger salute, also called the "Serb salute", is a popular expression for ethnic Serbs and Serbia, originally expressing Serbian Orthodoxy, today it is simply a symbol for ethnic Serbs and the Serbian nation, made by extending the thumb, index, and middle fingers of one or both hands.

Traditional clothing varies due to diverse geography and climate of the territory inhabited by the Serbs. The traditional footwear, opanci, is worn throughout the Balkans.[78] The most common folk costume of Serbia is that of Šumadija, a region in central Serbia,[79] which includes the national hat, the Šajkača.[80][81] Older villagers still wear their traditional costumes.[79]

slava is the family's annual ceremony and veneration of their patron saint, a social event in which the family is together at the house of the patriarch. The tradition is an important ethnic marker of Serb identity.[20] Serbs usually regard the Slava as their most significant and most solemn feast day.[21]

Serbian cuisine is largely heterogeneous, with heavy Oriental, Central European and Mediterranean influences.[82] Despite this, it has evolved and achieved its own culinary identity. Food is very important in Serbian social life, particularly during religious holidays such as Christmas, Easter and feast days, i.e., slava.[82] Staples of the Serbian diet include bread, meat, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Traditionally, three meals are consumed per day. Breakfast generally consists of eggs, meat and bread. Lunch is considered the main meal, and is normally eaten in the afternoon. Traditionally, Turkish coffee is prepared after a meal, and is served in small cups.[82] Bread is the basis of all Serbian meals, and it plays an important role in Serbian cuisine and can be found in religious rituals. A traditional Serbian welcome is to offer bread and salt to guests, and also slatko (fruit preserve). Meat is widely consumed, as is fish. Serbian specialties include kajmak (a dairy product similar to clotted cream), proja (cornbread), kačamak (corn-flour porridge), and gibanica (cheese and kajmak pie). Ćevapčići, caseless grilled and seasoned sausages made of minced meat, is the national dish of Serbia.[82]

Šljivovica (Slivovitz) is the national drink of Serbia in domestic production for centuries, and plum is the national fruit. The name Slivovitz is derived from Serbian (Šljivovica).[83] Plum and its products are of great importance to Serbs and part of numerous customs.[84] A Serbian meal usually starts or ends with plum products and Šljivovica is served as an aperitif.[84] A saying goes that the best place to build a house is where a plum tree grows best.[84] Traditionally, Šljivovica (commonly referred to as "rakija") is connected to Serbian culture as a drink used at all important rites of passage (birth, baptism, military service, marriage, death, etc.).[84] It is used in the Serbian Orthodox patron saint celebration, slava.[84] It is used in numerous folk remedies, and is given certain degree of respect above all other alcoholic drinks. The fertile region of Šumadija in central Serbia is particularly known for its plums and Šljivovica.[85] Serbia is the largest exporter of slivovitz in the world, and second largest plum producer in the world.[86][87]